By Editor,Paul Shapiro

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Dezi mate ordered to come out with ‘nothing in your hands’ in dramatic cop raid

READ MORE: Priest says accused cop killer called Pope Leo the ‘Antichrist’

By PAUL SHAPIRO, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA

Published: 08:56 BST, 10 September 2025 | Updated: 08:56 BST, 10 September 2025

A phalanx of heavily-armed cops have surrounded the home of a freedom fighter mate of fugitive Dezi Freeman and ordered him out ‘with nothing in his hands’ during a tense stand-off.

A platoon of military-style police hunting Freeman arrived at anti-authority preacher Jim Rech’s home and laid siege to the property in a formidable show of strength.

Multiple police vehicles including a Bearcat are glimpsed in the footage shot by a neighbour as the raid unfolded in Myrtleford in Victoria’s High Country, five days after the deadly shootout at nearby Porepunkah.

Freeman is understood to have been close friends with Mr Rech for many years and had been praised by Freeman for running a freedom fighter social media news outlet.

Mr Rech was with Freeman, 56, when he was arrested outside Myrtleford Magistrates Court in 2021, and in a podcast, Freeman hailed Mr Rech as a ‘true leader’.

Cops targeted Rech’s home on the Sunday after Freeman allegedly gunned down three cops, killing two and seriously injuring a third, before fleeing into the bush.

The dramatic showdown was filmed by a neighbour cowering behind bushes as police sirens wailed and a woman police officer barked orders at Mr Rech’s door.

‘They hunt the man… yes,’ the neighbour said at the start of the video.

Police raided the property of Jim Rech (pictured)

The dramatic showdown was filmed by a neighbour cowering behind bushes as police sirens wailed and a woman police officer barked orders at Mr Rech’s door

Dezi Freeman, 56, went on the run after he allegedly gunned down three officers at his home in Porepunkah

Police sounded a high-pitched siren before the female officer used a loudspeaker to warn Mr Rech to come outside.

‘James Rech, this is the police, you need to come outside your house with nothing in your hands, you need to speak to police,’ the officer said.

The neighbour kept filming as police waited a few moments before the officer repeated her warning for a second time, accompanied by sirens and lights.

‘James Rech, you need to come outside your house… with nothing in your hands, you need to speak to police,’ the officer warned Mr Rech.

‘Bloke’s not home,’ the neighbour can be heard saying.

A neighbourhood dog disturbed by the raid barked throughout the video which cut off after police let their high-pitched siren ring out for several seconds.

A source later confirmed to the Daily Mail that Mr Rech was not at home at the time of the police raid.

Former top Victoria Police Homicide Squad investigator Charlie Bezzina told the Daily Mail he believed the officer on the loudspeaker would have been a negotiator and police will be ‘treading carefully’ through a ‘volatile’ situation.

Former top Victoria Police Homicide Squad investigator Charlie Bezzina said he believed the officer on the loudspeaker would’ve been a negotiator

Specialist NSW Police are hunting for Freeman

Heavily armed police are continuing to hunt for Freeman this week

‘They must be responding to some intelligence that gives them a house of interest that they’ve gone into and they’ve gone, obviously, cautiously enough because they don’t know what they’re going to find,’ Mr Bezzina said.

‘Now, whether the information is that someone there is associated to him [Freeman], they have to take all the precautions in the world, so they’ve gone from the top down instead of from the bottom up.

‘So that would be pretty standard across the board [while hunting Freeman] because they’re going to know they’ll be confronted.

‘You’ve got some intelligence, but you can’t take that intelligence for granted 100 per cent.

‘But you’ve got to go in and even if there’s nothing to it you don’t want to go in light and end up with another catastrophe.

‘It’s all volatile, everything they do is volatile and it could be under the next rock, they got their heightened awareness.

‘And considering who they are chasing their awareness would be absolutely supreme.’

Mr Rech, who is understood to have run ‘Alpine Regional News’ a social media news site for ‘freedom fighters’ from Mt Buffalo, Myrtleford and Porepunkah, posted the video to his Facebook profile which has more than 2,500 followers.

Detective Leading Senior Constable Neal Thompson, 59, was allegedly killed by Freeman

Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, died after the shootout on August 26

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It’s understood Freeman met Mr Rech, who declined to be interviewed by Daily Mail, via the defunct Facebook page.

Freeman praised Mr Rech and his old Facebook news page when he appeared on The Mike Holt Show – a podcast favoured by anti-authority listeners.

‘There’s some good people that run that (Facebook page), various people, and there’s a lot of good people behind me,’ Freeman said when he appeared on a 2019 episode of the podcast.

Freeman also described Mr Rech and other freedom fighters Gerry Donahue and Brian Shaw as ‘legends’

‘These guys are the working behind the scenes, that’s what you call true leaders,’ Freeman said on the episode.

‘You know, we’ve got these fake leaders like Scomo and all these, these losers, these criminals, they’re scum, oh, and all the rest of them, no matter what political party it’s the same, the same criminal organisation,’ Freeman said.

‘People need to realise there’s a thing called natural leaders and natural leaders just emerge by their actions. Brian Shaw, Jim Rech and Gerry Donahue are just three of many.’

Freeman also sent an ominous warning to authorities that ‘they picked the wrong person to mess with’ and are ‘finding that out’ while on the show.

Dezi Freeman sent an ominous warning to authorities in one podcast that ‘they picked the wrong person to mess with’ and are ‘finding that out’

Freeman sent an ominous warning to authorities that ‘they picked the wrong person to mess with

‘Freeman’s the name freedom’s the game,’ Freeman said.

Freeman went on the run after he allegedly gunned down three officers at his home in Porepunkah in Victoria’s High Country just before 11am on August 26.

Senior Constable Vadim de Waart-Hottart, 35, and detective Neal Thompson, 59, died and a third officer was seriously injured after they were allegedly ambushed as they tried to serve a warrant on Freeman.

Freeman immediately fled into the bush and has not been seen since, despite a massive manhunt involving almost 500 police, trackers and specialist units.

Senior Constable Thompson was farewelled at Monday’s service at the Victoria Police Academy in Melbourne.

Among the attendees at the Victoria Police Academy Chapel were Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, Victoria Police Commissioner Mike Bush and Police Association chief executive Wayne Gatt.

Detective Thompson’s coffin lay in front of the packed chapel, draped in an Australian flag and topped with a Victoria Police cap.

Lisa Thompson, Neal Thompson’s partner, broke down while telling the chapel how she met him while on the job in 2016.

Dezi Freeman, 56, went on the run after he allegedly gunned down three officers at his home in Porepunkah in Victoria’s High Country just before 11am on August 26.

‘We worked one shift together and it changed the course of my life,’ she said.

‘I had never laughed so much with someone I’d just met.

‘I knew Neal to be an intensely private person, a provider and protector.

‘We were the opposite in every way, but together we were unstoppable.’

One comfort to Ms Thompson was the last weekend she and Detective Thompson spent together as it ‘was our best’.

‘We worked on the new farm all day and as the sun began to set, he called out, ‘Hey farm wife, why isn’t dinner ready yet?’,’ she said.

‘To which I laughed and replied, while shaking my head: ‘You are the best husband I’ve had, but I do love being your farm wife’.

‘That night, as we wined and dined and gazed at the stars, we left nothing unsaid.’

The massive manhunt for Freeman is about to enter its third week

Senior Constable Thompson’s service concluded just after 1pm.

The chapel rose as six pallbearers carried Senior Constable Thompson’s coffin to a white hearse outside the chapel.

Hundreds of officers lined the street to give a guard of honour as his coffin left the chapel.

Senior Constable de Waart-Hottart was farewelled in an emotion-charged service held at the academy the Friday just gone.

It’s understood the slain officers were among ten Victoria Police members who attended Freeman’s makeshift home built with an old bus before a shootout ensued.

The massive manhunt for Freeman has now entered its third week as 450 heavily-armed and specialist police aided by the ADF search deep bushland near Porepunkah.

Police have also searched more than 100 properties in the surrounding towns and received hundreds of tips and pieces of new information since announcing a $1million reward.

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